


time flies when you're having fun (except when you're not)

by surely_silly



Series: unclaimed luggage [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Present Tense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2014-03-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 17:36:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1109653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surely_silly/pseuds/surely_silly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens next is a mystery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Ginny gives him a soft smile, her wrinkled and warm hand firm in his. Her brown eyes sparkle with unshed tears, and she tightens her grip around Harry's hand. He presses a kiss to her forehead, brushing wispy strands of fiery red hair behind her left ear, and feels his heart fracture all over again.

"It's okay Gin," he whispers to her, mindful of his children and their children dozing around them, "It's alright, just let go. I love you."

Tears escape the edges of his eyes, and Ginny gives a relaxed sigh, big and deep, her eyes slipping closed.

Harry can feel the stillness settle, and he chokes back a sob, clenching his eyes shut and gripping the slack hand in his.

"I love you, I love you so much," he whispers to the room, warmth curling around him. He can see a faint curl of red behind his eyes, feel a light brush of his hair, and hear a faint whisper in his ear before he knows Ginny is truly gone—onward to her great next adventure.


	2. Chapter 2

"I don't think I can stay here anymore," Harry admits, crouched in front of Hermione's grave. He gives a glance towards Ron's and Fred's, the loneliness welling up. "The kids and their kids are great but it's just not the same, and Teddy and George are alright y'know, trying to help me stay under the radar, but the new minster is... getting ideas, I suppose. People keep catching pictures of me and they're wondering... this is something no one wants, even if they think they do."

He lets a moment lapse without a word before sighing.

"I think I might go to America," he says, tugging at the cloak around him against the morning chill. "They're pretty disorganized over there, so it shouldn't be all that hard to disappear, y'know."

A sudden breeze ruffles his hair, and he laughs. "I'll take care, don't you worry."

The wind dies down, as if pleased.

 


	3. Chapter 3

"So, you're really leaving."

Harry continues folding the sweater, tucking it into the charmed suitcase; it's the last Molly knitted for him before passing, and he saved it for last, wavering between the idea of wearing it on his way out as some sort of gesture or not. The arrival of his godson makes him put it away.

"I am," he confirms, turning around to face Teddy. Too bright eyes stare back at him, and Harry cannot help but smile at the flicks of green he sees swirl in the pools of gold. They flicker down, and some of the sorrow fades; Harry is, after all, wearing the horrible sweater the man had made for his godfather what seems like too long a time ago.

Teddy stifles a snort, and Harry grins. "You still have that abomination of a thing?" he asks, deep purple hair bleeding a vibrant orange with strands of teal in a show of affection and of strong conviction and sadness.  _Please don't leave,_ it says, and Harry can figure the rest.  _We'll work something out, please don't go, we all love you, I love you; what will we do without you?_

"I do. It reminds me of you and everyone else; of happier, easier, times," he murmurs before closing the distance, drawing the taller man into tight hug. "You're all grown up now, Teddy; you'll do fine without me, all of you will."

There's a beat, fingers curl into his back, and then a sudden and small sob soaks itself into his shoulder. "I... We won't be seeing you again will we?"

They won't. He has to disappear, and seeing them again... it's too much of a risk. The minister is sly and manipulative, but a good enough minister still, even if slightly questionable. At the first chance, the first opportunity, he'd be snatched up and spirited away into the bowels of the ministry; he'd be studied, pulled apart, possibly even tossed through the veil when they would discover nothing because  _it's not like that_. The Wizarding World doesn't need him anymore; it  _wants_ him, and that is where the difference makes itself known.

It is time for the Boy-Who-Lived to die.

 


	4. Chapter 4

It takes all of six days for his well thought out plan to go to shit.


	5. Chapter 5

He's shuffling last minute papers, the transactions and stipulations having already gone through and been approved at Gringotts; he's only tidying up, cleaning his study out, when the outer wards tremble, shiver like with a chill up a spine, and start to chip apart.

Harry straightens. "Dilly! Denke!" he calls out, and with twin snaps, the two elves are there, butcher knives in their hands. He blinks at them, and their determined faces, and cannot help the warmth that seeps into his chest. "What are you two d—No, don't answer that, I know what you think you're going to do but you're not."

"Master Harry, sir?" Denke asks, a slight tremor to his old hands.

Crouching low, he shuffles the two closer to him, giving them a light hug. "You both are to gather everyone else, and go to Teddy's, okay? You will not fight for me here," he tells them, looking into their pained, wide eyes. "That's an order."

Dilly bursts into tears, and Denke grabs the younger elf's free hand tightly, face tight with restrained pain. The older elf nods, and then they're gone.

Harry stands, feeling each little blip of life disappearing from within the wards as the elves disappear, and sets the table aflame with a curt flick of his wand, burning the papers and tomes. The flames grow, creeping fingers crawling up the book-lined shelves, and he leaves the room.

He hadn't planned on burning Grimmauld Place down; he set for it to go to Teddy, but it just won't to be, he guesses as the last of the outer wards fall.

 


	6. Chapter 6

Harry spits in the lead auror's face, the bloody logy hitting him square in the cheek. The man growls, and with a flick of his wand, Harry finds himself sprawled onto the floor, heat scratching painfully in his side. Possibly his organs too. Closing his eyes against the bright flames that are consuming Grimmauld Place #12, he bares his teeth in a feral grin, and whispers the beginning of an enchantment.

"You lot gather him up, the Department of Mysteries is waiting for their newest toy," barks the man.

It's when arms are pulling at his limp limbs that the fire howls, and twists. With twin yelps, he's dropped as a pack of flame wolves split from the towering inferno and leap upon the aurors with maws of fire-bright teeth. There's a sharp yelp, a curse or hex, and a lion splits from the mass of red and orange with a roar in the corner of his eye.

Spent, Harry lays where he is on the grimy asphalt as the shrieks of rage turn to death rattles and screams as fire devours flesh and bone, renders them all to ash. His arm drags along the ground as he tests his side, pressing fingers to the tender pain. Straining to look down, he stares blankly at a hand dripping red.

_Ah._


	7. Chapter 7

_"BOY-WHO-LIVED DEAD_

_IN ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING_

_BY MINISTRY AURORS."_


End file.
